There are some concerns that students attendance is affected detrimentally by giving access to all the course materials through the learning platform. In response to that 1 lecturer has arranged for poor attendees to be “white listed” and access to resources blocked until attendance improves. In addition mature students may be less keen to use social media and technology in general.
Lecturers should not be put under pressure by students to use the technology. Some staff feel that coping with a variety of teaching styles is a good discipline for students to develop although there should be a common understanding that technology has a part in every course.
Staff are directed to use the VLE but at course level teaching and learning strategies are discussed but not specifically in the context of ICT. Staff recognise the need for staff and the college more generally to be prepared to respond to learners coming through tot FE with more and more experience of using technology. An audit of usage statistics by course or subject was suggested to enable the college to fully understand where efforts needs to be focused.
There is concern that adequate provision is made for people with barriers to learning and a recognition that using electronic resources can go some way to resolving the issue – e.g. CALM Templates could be made available centrally.
There is some experience that part time staff use more technology than full time staff.
Consider a new role of course creator in the system chosen to enable lecturing staff to create their own courses rather than issuing full admin rights as is currently necessary (in Moodle).
